The Pineapple Room

Teaching is an occupation where you can communicate every hour to one person, a small group or a large group. But even with the constant face-to-face communication, story-telling, mentoring and listening it can still be an isolating occupation. I have sometimes felt that some teachers moved from their college apartment into the classroom and have only conversed with teenagers for the rest of their professional lives. Of course this is not true, but unlike many jobs, there commonly are not many opportunities to interact with humans who have mature prefrontal cortexes.

Entering my tenth year of teaching high school I have been energized to change the isolation that a typical high school schedule can create. I was intrigued to read about the professional development (PD) tool called the Pineapple Chart. The Pineapple Chart is a simple Matrix with days of the week and class periods. The pineapple is simply a symbol of welcome and hospitality. The Pineapple Chart allows teachers to enter their name and their teaching strategy or event for a class period on a certain day. Their fellow teachers can then choose to use their planning period to visit those welcoming classrooms and observe and learn from their peers. Nearby American Canyon High School in Northern California boasts a “culture of collaboration” according to The California Educator magazine. One of their progressive PD efforts has teachers that share a planning period act as a cohort to share strategies and learn from each other. I may have spent nine years without constant feedback and learning from the teaching pros around me, but those days are over.

During a recent weekly collaboration session I worked with four other teachers to prototype what professional development would look like if we took the Pineapple Chart and expanded the idea. It was an incredibly fun experience. Pipe cleaners, balloons, paper clamps, snickers bars and anything else was fair game. The big idea? A Pineapple Room. PD every day. A room where teachers teach teachers. The key ideas were practice, share, learn and play--lots of play.

The test phase followed and our merry team of 5 grew to 11. We shared some icebreakers. We practiced an idea-generating strategy (brainwriting) which led to collaborative writing strategies bubbling up during our discussion. The play room was a big hit. The play set the tone and the learning followed. We shared notes, links and memes. Someone created a Google Calendar page to schedule the room. Dynamic new English teacher, Justin Salazar Stewart, created a Google Classroom “Pineapple Room” on the spot. Our Principal, Kristen Witt, gladly carved out the space for our Pineapple room and is 101.5% supportive and ready to learn and share with us. Our “Teacher On Special Assignment” TOSA Edu-Tech god, Josh Harris has joined us too.

What’s next? Two words—foosball & apps.